National Credit Relief Agency Scam

When I picked up the mail this after­noon, there was an offi­cial looking letter addressed to my wife. Usually offi­cial looking letters are bearers of bad news, so I handed it to her as soon as I got home. Turns out this one was from an orga­ni­za­tion called the National Credit Relief Agency.

The letter was blatantly styled to look like a govern­ment form, complete with an eagle in the logo and refer­ences to the Account­ability Respon­si­bility and Disclo­sure act. NCRA does (at the bottom of the letter) mention that they are a private agency, but they’ve even gone to the trouble of setting up a DC address (despite mailing this out from California).

So what is the core of this scam? They claim that they have reviewed your Experian credit file and that you may be “a victim of unau­tho­rized interest rate adjust­ments and credit limit decreases”. Now given how the credit card compa­nies have been oper­ating I’m going to bet that just about everyone has seen credit limit decreases and interest rate adjust­ments. The NCRA letter then goes on to say that theycan give you a settle­ment on your consumer debt for a reduced prin­cipal amount and a lower monthly payment at 0% interest.

Here’s what you have to under­stand. The NCRA may be able to get you a settle­ment on a reduced prin­cipal and lower monthly payment. But if they do they will absolutely destroy your credit rating and it will take you years to recover from it.

Thats why the want to make it look like they’re connected with a govern­ment program of some sort. Because the truth isn’t nearly as appealing. If you received one of these letters in your mail, throw it straight in the bin and go to a reputable company to help sort out your debt.